Boone school board candidates address questions from press and public during forum

Thursday

Aug 31, 2017 at 12:01 AMAug 31, 2017 at 10:16 AM

By Gena Johnson, News-Republican Editor

Declining enrollment, bullying, budgets, facilities and quality of education were all issues that were discussed during the Aug. 24 school board forum hosted by KWBG radio.

Six candidates are competing for two at-large seats on the Boone school board in the Sept. 12 election.

Incumbent Brian Mehlhaus is seeking re-election, while newcomers April Burch, Linda Williamson, Jeremy Pritchard, Marti Melton-Streeter and Daniel Wojcik are each hoping to win a seat on the board.

Williamson was unable to attend the forum.

During the forum, Burch said reversing the trend of declining enrollment would have to be a priority for the new board.

“Declining enrollment affects our district pretty dramatically in terms of available funding,” she said. “One of the things the district has looked at over the last couple of years is open enrollment to schools outside the Boone school district by students that could come to the Boone school district.”

Melton-Streeter said the closing of businesses out by the industrial park has cost the school some enrollment, especially in the past five years.

“One solution that I have been thinking about especially, is working with our city,” she said. “I looked at different school districts that work with their city and they are seeing those rural districts really prosper.”

Wojcik said there could be a link between declining enrollment and student perceptions about school work.

“One of the items we could look at is engaging the students more,” he said. “Part of that … is working with the faculty we have. Develop plans so that the students that are, in fact, not really being challenged, can get that level of engagement that they truly need.”

Pritchard said the district first needs to determine why students are leaving.

“I think there is a whole number of reasons why people would send their kids elsewhere, it could be positive and negative opinions on certain things,” Pritchard said.

Mehlhaus said the district has already been working on declining enrollment rates.

“We have reached out to the families that have left the district,” said Mehlhaus, adding that declining enrollment is an issue for all rural schools in Iowa.

The candidates also talked about how they would approach the city and other entities to appeal to families.

Melton-Streeter said developing a partnership with the city could make the district eligible for grants from groups, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Wojcik said greater involvement in community activities may help keep some families in the district.

“I know that every year we always have a number of items that go on in town, such as Pufferbilly Days. I think that having the schools get greater involvement in community events like that … would help to begin building that bridge,” Wojcik said.

Mehlhaus said the school has formed a public relations committee to help with the school’s relationship with the city and other entities.

Another big issue facing the new board will be funding, the candidates said, with all agreeing it will be the No. 1 issue moving forward.

“Funding for different programs, such as special education, making sure we have the correct amount of funding as can be available - I think those are some of the items that the state will be bring to us,” Wojick said.

Pritchard said the state needs to find a way to increase the aid it provides to local schools.

“The state of Iowa revenue increases roughly 2 percent a year and it seems like you need a greater-than 2 percent increase to the school budget to keep up with today’s technology standards and innovations,” Pritchard said. “It always seems like there is a squeeze on the education budgets, which have to be made up somewhere or cuts have to be made.”

Mehlhaus said state legislation and mandates also strain local budgets.

“For instance, special ed, they have IEPs (Individual Education Plan) - depending on their IEP we have to staff at certain levels. Unfortunately, we didn’t make enough room for that. So, that special ed money has to go off of property taxes the following year,” Mehlhaus said.

Burch said low school aid jeapordizes the district’s ability to serve students at the level that is needed.

“The state Legislature gave us a 1.1 percent increase. It’s devastating programs that are underfunded already,” Burch said. “We’re also under a number of other legislative decisions that impact our ability to attract new teachers to Iowa to our district.The inability to attract new talent, new teachers, could potentially hurt us in the future.”

The candidates also discussed making hard decisions on budget cuts if funding is not available.

“I know there are some other challenges in our district as well,” Pritchard said. “A sports complex for a district of our size, would be nice, but … if the funding isn’t there it’s not there.”

Mehlhaus said unfortunately the school had to make cuts this year.

“You have two options, you start making cuts to extra curricular programs or start increasing class size,” Mehlhaus said. “Hopefully, we can increase our enrollment and this won’t be a problem.”

Burch said one of the things we have as Iowans is the ability to think creatively and find creative solutions.

“I think there are a lot of great ideas out there in our community that if we work with our community, we can find these types of solutions for our district,” Burch said, adding she would hate to see programs like the arts get cut.

Boone resident Sandy Madden asked about bullying in schools and communication between the schools and parents. Burch said there was not much communication between the school’s administration and herself when her oldest daughter was bullied.

“There wasn’t a lot of communication,” Burch said. “She had gone to the then-principal and explained what was going on. She had gone repeatedly and didn’t tell me. I didn’t find out until her third trip to the principal’s office that something was going on.

“That principal is no longer with our district and I would like to hope we have guidelines in place to ensure that when a student comes forward with a bullying issue that the parents are brought in immediately,” Burch said.

Melton-Streeter, a former director of the Boone Schools Home School Assistance Program (BHSAP), disagreed about the lack of communication.

“I do feel that there was communication, there was team meetings, there was an effort made to bring parents in,” Melton-Streeter said. “I’ve seen that the parents felt like there was a resolution in it after talking it through and tempers calmed down… I think the communication is there if everyone on the team works together and part of the team is the parents.”

Mehlhaus said the solution to bullying lies in education.

“If they (students) see bullying, they need to stop it. Tell their friends to knock it off. If not, report it to the principals, the principals need to get involved. Communicate with the parents, both the victim and the bully’s,” Mehlhaus said.

Another issue that was addressed was the need to update both elementary schools.

Wojcik, Pritchard, Mehlhaus, Burch all said that updating the facilities was something that needed to be done, but it would require the passage of a bond issue to happen.

The conversation turned back to the connection between declining enrollment and funding, and the need to better promote Boone schools.

“Take pride, be proud to come from here, be proud to come from Boone to be from Boone,” Wojcik said.